A. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to the management of networks, and more particularly, to the efficient synchronization of managed network element attributes with element/network management system.
B. Background of the Invention
The importance of optical networking technology in today's society is well understood. Optical networks allow large amounts of information to be transmitted at high data rates across very long distances. The reliance on these networks by individuals and companies requires that the networks operate with minimal failures.
In optical long haul scenarios, multiple channels or wavelengths are typically multiplexed together and inserted into a fiber optic cable that spans a long distance. The optical signal, comprising multiple wavelengths, propagates within the fiber optic cable until its destination is reached. This signal may then be demultiplexed and the individual wavelengths further processed.
Connections within an optical network may be provisioned by switching data at one or more switching nodes. The switching nodes or elements receive data on one port and switch the data to a provisioned output port. Because of this switching capability between ports, these switching nodes may be intermediary devices in a large number of connections that form end-to-end circuits within the network.
In order for these nodes and other network components to operate properly, element/network management systems are installed that monitor and control the network and the connections therein. A fundamental task of the majority of element management systems is to provide complete and accurate information of network element(s) within the network to the user of element management system.
Network elements may need to be restarted during the operation of the network for various reasons. Failures within the network may cause breaks in connections between network elements. These restarts and connection failures may result in a loss of synchronization between the effected network elements and the element/network management system. In particular, certain software objects, states and entities on these network elements may have been added, deleted or modified causing loss of sync with the data store maintained within the element management system or systems.
This synchronization loss between element management data store and software objects on the network elements may potentially lead to loss of accurate visibility of the network to the user of element management system. In such an event, it becomes very important to identify a loss of synchronization of these management objects and entities, and resynchronize them. Traditionally, a complete retrieval technique will be used to synchronize network element data with the element/network management system. This is not an efficient technique because of the bandwidth and time requirements imposed on the network during this process. For example, if one or more element management systems lost connectivity with a network element, then each of these systems must retrieve data from the lost element(s) to re-synchronize itself to these lost element(s). Retrieving and processing this data often incurs load on the network and the network element for extended periods of time.
The re-synchronization between network elements may be accomplished by the element management software systems exhaustively re-synchronizing all of the data relating to each of the software objects and the management systems on the network elements. As mentioned above, this approach is prohibitive in terms of the required bandwidth and processing resources need to accomplish the task and the amount of time consumed to complete the task.
Therefore, there is a need for a system, apparatus and method to provide better and improved scalability and performance of element management resynchronization.